Exploring the meaning of care among lived experiences of patients with blindness: an interpretive phenomenological study†

Six methodical activities of van Manen	The researchers’ activities in the current study
Turning to the nature of lived experience	Thinking and caring for patients with blindness, formulating the phenomenological question: how people with blindness experience healthcare?
Investigating experience as we live it	Prolonged engagement with clients with blindness, conducting in-depth interviews
Reflecting on essential themes	Listening to the audios, reading the transcripts, immersing in the data, conducting thematic analysis
Hermeneutic phenomenological writing	Writing the transcripts, writing about themes, writing to create a phenomenological text
Maintaining a strong and oriented relation to the phenomenon	Keeping thoughts and attention on participants’ life stories, discussing the themes in relation to caring science
Balancing the research context by considering parts and whole	Moving between transcripts and themes, relating the findings to the literature

Participant	Age (years)	Sex	Marital status	Living with	Educational degree	Vocational status
P1	52	Male	Married	Spouse and children	Bachelor	Retired
P2	35	Male	Married	Spouse with blindness	Bachelor	Phone operator
P3	35	Male	Unmarried	Parents	Diploma	Part-time job
P4	56	Male	Married	Spouse	Diploma	Phone operator
P5	45	Female	Married	Spouse with blindness	Diploma	Housekeeper
P6	38	Male	Married	Spouse and children	Bachelor	Office employee
P7	39	Female	Unmarried	Parents	Illiterate	Unemployed
P8	35	Female	Unmarried	Parents	Bachelor	Unemployed
P9	53	Female	Married	Spouse and children	Diploma	Retired
P10	32	Female	Married	Parents	Guidance school	Unemployed
P11	43	Male	Married	Spouse and children	Diploma	Part-time job
P12	50	Male	Married	Spouse	Diploma	Retired
P13	40	Female	Unmarried	Parents	Bachelor	Knitter
P14	35	Male	Married	Spouse with blindness	Master degree	Teacher
P15	20	Male	Unmarried	Parents	Bachelor degree student	Student

Exploring the meaning of care among lived experiences of patients with blindness: an interpretive phenomenological study^†